OH NO! Waterstones has published their list of "best books" for the last 20 years, and I agree with none!!!!!!!!!
Waterstones are my favorite bookstore chain. Inasmuch as I love Foyles, nothing can beat Waterstones for me. The Costa Cafe in the Waterstones outside the University of London is my favorite spot on Earth.
Still, their list is, for me, an utter disappointment. White Teeth? Captain Corelli's Mandolin? No thanks.
I think that, as far as so-called literary fiction is concerned, I prefer fiction from the 19th century backwards. The only 20th century literary fiction I liked was Virginia Woolf and Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, though not for bed-time reading; just "serious" reading. On the other hand, I don't mind reading Dickens, Jane Austen and the Brontes for fun.
Recently, I have stopped reading fiction altogether. I read mostly non-fiction now. I write my own fiction (romances) and this is enough for me. The only fiction I read are any classics (from the 19th century backwards) I haven't read yet, and the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy on repeat. I haven't found anything so exciting since Fifty Shades, to be honest.
I guess "best books" lists are entirely subjective. A formula for book success, or to make us all agree on what is good, is yet to be found. Meanwhile, I'll stick to my preference for the Victorians and for Fifty Shades! :-)
"Moral considerations have little or nothing to do with artistic excellence," wrote Andre Gide in a 1940 Preface to Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos. Gide referred to the ability of art to temporary undermine our moral sense, and make us side with characters considered rebellious, immoral or even plain evil. I am currently re-reading Dangerous Liaisons, and I am again impressed by Merteuil and Valmont, the evil characters and evil doers!
I have to say that the same happened to me with Richardson's Clarissa. I was not impressed by the saintly protagonist (the eponymous Clarissa) but with the male protagonist hero-villain Robert Lovelace. Clarissa is the longest novel ever written in the English language. The prose is beautiful, elegant, lovely -- you do not get bored. On the contrary, you are attracted by the novel, and you inevitably fall in love with Lovelace: his beauty, passion, his dark soul, his evil strength.
I suppose this attraction for the dark side plays in endless novels and films. Most notably, for me, it plays in Fifty Shades of Grey, where we love Christian no less for his tortured mind and soul. No less? Nay, we love him more!!!!
Have a good Friday afternoon and be well! xxx
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! This week we got The Diet Bible by food expert Judith Wills!
You will probably know by now that I am committed to body size acceptance, and I am not in favor of dieting. I am more in favor of nutrition, and I think that the best form of diet is a reasonable intake of (any kind of) food plus exercise.
So, if you ask me whether The Diet Bible is good for dieting, I will say no. If any of you are worried about weight, and feel that you cannot deal with weight issues by yourselves, it might be better to see a nutritionist, who will find an eating scheme that is good and would work for you.
Plus, the sample diets contained in The Diet Bible are, in my view, too strict and probably deficient in nutrients too. I don't think anyone could follow the diets in the book and not go mad from hunger.
What I find the book very valuable for is practical advice. It has excellent ideas and tips on such things as snacks, breakfast, what is good to eat and what is best to avoid in restaurants, what is a good but low-calorie dinner or meal, what is best to eat at fast food joints, pubs, &c.
Moreover, The Diet Bible has a lot of information and advice on eating and eating habits during the various stages of life, during pregnancy and also advice for parents and children.
Therefore, this book is good, provided you use it with care! Avoid the sample diets, but use the advice!
And remember -- a few extra kilos do not mean anything. Food is a blessing and it is there to be enjoyed. Like everything, it should be taken in moderation.
Until next week, take care and be well! xxx
IF you have been reading this blog for some time, you will know that one of my firm beliefs is that we, women, should enjoy beauty and feel inspired by it. Anything and anyone who tries to make us feel bad by saying that "you are not as beautiful as A (A=famous actress)", or "you are not as thin as B (B=famous model)" are wasting their time. We love both A and B, though we cannot be as glamorous as they are! Beauty must unite women.
Women studies scholars (including myself) have been writing about this for some time, and that women must cultivate a good and fruitful relationship with their mirror, by avoiding to think in demeaning and misogynistic stereotypes.
This sounds difficult but, once you embark on it, it becomes easier and easier. Worry about wrinkles? Do as I do, and check out a Helen Mirren pic. Helen Mirren is gorgeous, and always be. Worry about weight? Check out a Marilyn Monroe pic. Marilyn always wore size 16 (UK size 16).
Beauty is multiple and should be an inspiration, not an obstacle. Beauty is life's journey. Take a deep breath and enjoy the ride! xxx
SO, was it good????? So, was it worth the wait? The buzz? The hype? I am talking about the 50 Shades movie, and the answer is YES to all!
Hello and welcome to a special edition of The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we have the movie for 50 Shades of Grey!
I really loved the film, and this is not because I was prepared to love it. 50 Shades is my favorite book, Christian Grey is my favorite literary character, so I was quite concerned about the film!
Nevertheless, it proved to be well-made, exciting, and lots of fun! They accentuated the humor of the book, to good effect. The famous (or infamous) contract is outlined and explained in an imaginative and funny scene. Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were quite good together; their scenes hot, intimate and erotic in a natural and effortless way.
Jamie Dornan, I have to say, is truly HOT. I always knew how hot he is, and I was sure he would be great for the film, but I didn't know exactly how hot he was until tonight. He is very hot! (Giggle). I liked Dakota Johnson too; in the book, I often found Anastasia Steele annoying, but this doesn't come out in the film at all.
The scene where the two fly in Charlie Tango is a scene of pure movie magic!
A good thing too is that the family is not shown too much; Mr and Mrs Grey, Mia, Eliot &c. I found that, in the book, these characters and their plot-lines were too sugary. The major plot line between Christian and Ana is the fairy tale, so it would have been better had the sub-plots been kept closer to reality. Luckily, the sub-plots were kept at a minimum in the film.
Now it's back to reality, I guess. There is no Mr Grey to help with the problems of badly paid jobs and the complications of every-day life. However, there is a Mr Grey to give us an element of the fairy-tale, and I think that this is by itself real enough.
Have a good Sunday evening! xxx
FOR ME, Valentine's Day is not necessarily about romantic love, it is a date to celebrate every kind of love!
Celebrations and festivities are a very useful tool to exclude people from society, and Valentine's Day is sadly no exception. A way to beat this is to realize that Valentine's Day is a celebration of the power of love. It is not exclusively a celebration of romance and the ability to afford special Valentine's dinners, weekends, merchandise and forms of behavior.
In literature, a Valentine is sent as a joke in Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, with bad consequences. I never liked Hardy, I have to say. His language is lovely; but I could never get into his plots and characters. I am sorry to say that, for me, Hardy plots are among the worst ever written.
The heart, as a symbol, is one of goodness, divinity, resilience and renewal. I honestly think that the heart is as powerful an organ as the brain, and that to divide the two is nonsensical. I think they are meant to work together, not apart. I will write more about the heart in a future post.
Have a happy Valentine's Day wherever you are! The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review coming soon! xxx
TODAY marks the beginning of the carnival season in Cyprus, and I was in Limassol, the traditional host city of the carnival! I really enjoyed it, though I was there for work. There was free food and eating, while groups of men and women with masks and carnival make-up were everywhere!
In literature, the most famous masked ball is probably the ball where Romeo meets Juliet in Shakespeare's eponymous play. Romeo and Juliet is a romantic tragedy; Shakespeare used the carnival and the idea of disguise in his romantic comedies as well, most notably in As You Like It and Twelfth Night.
For famous literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin, the ideas of carnival and festivity represent the rhythm of nature and renewal; the rhythm which knows no death but is on the contrary cyclical and productive!
More recently in literature, Ana and Christian have a fantastic time in a masked ball, in the one and only Fifty Shades of Grey!
If I had not gone to Limassol for work today, I would certainly go to Beauty Line in Anexartisias Avenue, where my friend and great artist Mike Orphanides was doing mind-blowing make-up for carnival for free! I went to say hello and then had to drive back home.
What would be my disguise if I ever find myself at a masked ball? A Victorian lady, of course, complete with the corset, the crinoline, the silk gown and the cashmere shawl!
Have a good night and many xxx
I AM reading a book called Dolls' Houses (from the V&A Museum of Childhood) by Halina Pasierbska and am learning the most fascinating information about dolls' houses! Apparently, dolls' houses were used for teaching girls and young women all about housekeeping and house furnishing!
Often the doll's house is associated with female oppression. Who can forget Ibsen's The Doll's House? Though I am not 100% sure that Nora's husband was so bad, nonetheless, she felt oppressed, and thus she had to go.
In Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, David argues that Dora is a bad housewife by saying that she seemed to think herself in charge of a play house. I totally disagree with David's treatment of Dora, and have in fact published an article about it!
Still, dolls' houses have a lot to say about the history of humankind in general and the history of womankind in particular. Today, the house and home are studied as valid parts of women's history. Without overlooking the oppression, women studies scholars like myself read the home as a space full of female knowledge and experience.
When I was small I had a plain doll's house, which my child's imagination had furnished with all the accoutrements of a luxury home. I was refused the glittering Barbie house for being too expensive. If I ever have a daughter, the Barbie house will be a top present, and then we will play together! ;-)
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we have Taste: The Story of Britain through its Cooking, by Kate Colquhoun!
This book was published in 2007, and it is probably then that I bought it, from Waterstones in Exeter, UK. I used Taste as background reading for my Victorians PhD, for it is an historic account of food and cooking in Britain, from ancient times to the present day. I used the chapter on the Victorians for my University teaching on the Victorian period!
I love this book, because it is interesting, excellently well-written and very well researched. I particularly love the story of the discovery of one of the earliest British kitchens on the Bay of Skaill. The kitchen dates back to 3200 BC and was found furnished with vessels, rudimentary tools, stone mortars for pounding and cutting stones. Also, I love the picture of the Battersea cauldron pulled from the River Thames and dating to 800-700 BC. Generally, the book is full of beautiful pictures and illustrations.
Taste explores two thousand years of British culinary heritage and is about all aspects of cooking -- from archaeological finds and chronicles to recipes and menu cards, from cookery and household manuals to the cooking skills or kitchens of personalities like Queen Charlotte, the Carlysles and Catherine Dickens.
I totally recommend Taste to anyone who is interested in culinary history, food culture, history of cooking books and history in general!
Have a good night, always with beauty and a book!
DRAWING beauty is among my favorite pastimes; I don't have too much free time, but I like to draw when I can:
Women as both creators and objects of beauty, women as creators of their own beauty, is a fascinating new theme of study in Gender and Women Studies!
I have recently been reading a book about self-portraits and found information about some fascinating women artists from ages of old. Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) from Italy, was a famous artist in her day, and "the most prolific maker of self-portraits before Rembrandt". Her sister Lucia was also excellent. Their father was artist Amilcare Anguissola; he encouraged all his six daughters to be artists, and had Lucia and Sofonisba apprenticed to local portrait painters. However, the circumstances of the Aguissola sisters were the exception, and not the rule, in this male-dominated age.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-after 1653) also from Italy, was a famous artist as well, her idiom, "heroic and non-domestic, her scale monumental". Artemisia had been raped by a friend of her father's: she did not hesitate to bring him to justice and have him convicted. Well done!
Women managed to blossom despite millenia of terrible oppression by patriarchy; they managed to acquire their rights after decades of struggle. If today I am able to write this blog, it is because of that struggle, and for nothing else.
Have a beautiful day and be well! xxx
P.S. The book I am referring to is The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History, by James Hall.
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Today we got The Wrong Kind of Snow: The Complete Daily Companion to the British Weather, by Antony Woodward and Robert Penn!
This is a truly amazing book. I absolutely love it and it is one of my favorites in a collection of favorite books!
The Wrong Kind of Snow is witty, informative and original. The brief introduction is lovely, explaining how Britain itself and British life were formed and shaped by the weather. "In Britain, what isn't affected by the weather"? The changeable and capricious weather made Britain green and gave it its turf, wool, and milk; Britain is "the only country with fresh milk in every corner shop and filling station". The constant uncertainty about the weather also meant that Britain pioneered the science of meteorology.
The book is organized like a calendar, with history and historical events related to the weather for each day, guide to temperature and general conditions, as well as astrological information.
The edition is tasteful and elegant -- beautiful, thick paper, pretty fonts, and silver and light blue paper for the jacket.
I bought and read this book when I was doing my PhD in Exeter, UK. It kept me company and kept me amused through long, endless days of study. I totally recommend it to anyone interested in the weather, history and to anyone interested in "book of days" type of books!
Have a lovely weekend, always with beauty and a book! xxx
